Al-Hilli gun suspect released without charge

A man suspected of supplying the gun used to murder four people including
members of a British family in the French Alps has been released without
charge, it has emerged.

Saad al-Hilli, 50, an engineer from Weybridge, Surrey.

By Peter Allen, Paris

1:42PM GMT 24 Mar 2013

The man, who has not been named, was originally arrested last month in the Swiss city of Geneva, which is less than an hour's drive from the crime scene next to Lake Annecy, eastern France.

Saad al-Hilli, 50, an engineer from Weybridge, Surrey, his wife Iqbal, 47, mother-in-law Suhaila al-Allaf, 74 were all shot twice through the head in their BMW parked in a remote Alpine beauty spot on September 5.

French cyclist Sylvain Mollier, a 45-year-old father of three, was also shot dead during the frenzied attack.

The gun, which fires highly distinctive 7.65mm calibre bullets and has a capacity of eight rounds, was standard issue for the Swiss army between 1900 and 1945.

Its ammunition, which is 21mm long, is now extremely rare and used with very few other weapons.